Originally Posted by
Houpilot2001
So, why not pick a line that gives falls in the middle of your vacation, but still gives you 10-14 days off. That way you don't use your vacation.
You can do that if you want, but the guy above undersold the benefit of DTS. My last block was the worst DTS I've done in just under six years and still had 17 days off. Usually I can get 20/21 days off with DTS. You'd be hard pressed to find a line that you don't DTS only covers your vacation and gets more than 10 days off.
I personally care more about max time off during vacation so I always DTS. But for guys that don't care about days off and more about maximizing pay, I'd recommend (never tried this because it's not my thing) to still DTS, drop everything that you're only being paid 100% for and just pick up whole trips at 150% pay. Remember the hierarchy of picking up OT, in base full trips trumps inbase partial trips. So you can be junior as crap and still get awarded the OT over the senior guys trying to cherry pick turns off the front and back end if you pick up the whole trip and getting paid 150% for working the same days, sign me up